


Sunscreen and Starbursts

by sunhawk (sunhawkflamesprite)



Category: CSI: Miami
Genre: Fluff, Humour, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-08-04
Updated: 2007-08-04
Packaged: 2017-10-20 11:49:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/212489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunhawkflamesprite/pseuds/sunhawk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An unexpected trip to the beach</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sunscreen and Starbursts

**Author's Note:**

> Written at the end of my UK vacation for alligator138's "Summer Sun and Fun Challenge", prompts: Shade, Sunburn, Skinny-dipping. Thanks to shadowfax27 for betaing!

Ryan removed his dark shirt and shoes, then stood a little uncertainly in his navy blue swimshorts as he watched Eric in his peripheral vision disrobe in a similar fashion. He became caught in a momentary mental muddle where his brain was glad that Eric was wearing a sensible set of trunks as well and the rest of his body was disappointed that Eric hadn't picked a Speedo instead. Ryan reminded himself that he had agreed to come with Eric after work to hang out, not to treat Eric as more secret eyecandy.

But, a small voice in Ryan's head coaxed, a few harmless glances here and there, who would even know? It wasn't like anyone had even hinted they thought Ryan batted for the other side, and given the gossipy nature of the lab, if someone had said it, Ryan would have been artlessly asked about it by now. Eric certainly seemed completely clueless. Who would it hurt? So Ryan stopped fidgeting and let himself silently enjoy the broadness of Eric's shoulders and the flat planes of his back, noticing a small mole on the side of Eric's neck that he didn't remember seeing before. Then Eric bent over to rummage in his bag, and Ryan's thoughts turned a little more predatory with such a perfect view of Eric's backside.

"Hey, could you do my back?"

"Do your what?!" Ryan blurted, jolted guiltily from his enjoyable little musings. Eric turned and looked at him impatiently.

"Can you do my back? You know, with this?" He replied, holding up a bottle of tanning lotion.

"What do you need that for?" Again, Ryan's mouth kept the clever questions coming. Eric's impatient look turned a bit disbelieving, which was understandable since tanning lotion was considered a basic staple of Miami.

"So I don't burn?" Eric finally answered, offering the lotion to Ryan again.

"You burn? The beach will probably catch fire itself from the sun first." Ryan quipped. Eric did NOT look like he had ever come close to sunburning at any point in his life.

"Funny," Eric muttered. "...So are you gonna help me or what?"

"Um, yeah, sure." Ryan quickly said, grabbing the bottle before Eric could throw it at him out of frustration for his slack-jawed staring.

As Eric dutifully turned his back to Ryan, it was easy for Ryan to once again question why he was at the beach with Eric in the first place. Or why Eric had asked him along at all, given that he was still just as brisk to Ryan outside of work as he was at work. Certainly, nothing Eric had said would have given Ryan any reason to think his presence was welcome anywhere, rather than merely tolerated. Yet here he was, in the partial shade of a palm tree, with their spread towels behind them and a cooler of beer between them.

Ryan carefully uncapped the lotion and poured some onto his palm before recapping the bottle. Before he could change his mind, Ryan put the bottle under his arm and dabbed the fingers of his other hand into his palm to grab some of the white liquid. Working methodically, almost mathematically-precise, Ryan rubbed the sunscreen onto Eric's already sun-warmed back. He started at Eric's neck and moved downwards until he had reached the small of Eric's back. As he worked, Ryan tried really hard to ignore the muscle he could feel under Eric's smooth skin and the slippery slide of his palms along that warm skin. He also tried to not think about the entirely-too-pleasant smell of warm coconut mixed with the underlying ghost of one of those scented deodorants that were supposed to only wind up straight women. Ryan started mentally reciting simple organic chemistry compounds when his attempts to distract himself failed.

"All done." Ryan said quietly a moment later, wiping the excess lotion on his hands until they glistened. Ryan bit his lip at the inappropriate memory the visual provoked and resolutely moved his hands out of his line of sight. Eric grunted an acknowledgement that he'd heard Ryan and turned back around, taking back the bottle that Ryan offered him.

"Need some?" Eric asked, gesturing with the bottle again. Ryan blinked and then answered with some embarrassment:

"Uh yeah, but not with that. Some of us need a little more than SPF 15." Ryan smiled with slight self-deprecation. He bent over to reach inside his small navy duffel bag and pulled out a tube of SPF 30 sports waterproof sunscreen. Ryan offered this to Eric, who took it wordlessly and gestured for Ryan to turn around.

Swallowing silently, with the unexplainable tension he sometimes felt around Eric, Ryan turned his back to Eric. It wasn't sexual tension, or at least it wasn't _*just*_ sexual tension, which Ryan had grown used to around Eric to the point of mild resignation. It had become a new tension that seemed to come from Eric, though Eric showed no outward sign of it. Ryan wasn't sure what it was about; he was just glad it wasn't the angry resentment of last year.

Eric's hands, cooled by the sunscreen on them, startled Ryan into a little jump as they landed on his bare shoulders. Eric's movements along Ryan's skin were sure, if sloppier in patterning than Ryan's had been. Ryan tried to not wince visibly at the thought of a random patch of sunburn he might end up with at the end of the day. Ryan did tan rather well, but he often sunburned first.

Eric must have been aware he missed places because Ryan could feel his hands moving over the same places more than once, like they were searching for something. Then suddenly, about three or four vertebrae up along Ryan's back, Eric's thumb dug into the muscle hugging the side of Ryan's spine. Ryan gasped, first in complete surprise then in a sort of abrupt shock as the muscle shuddered then relaxed with a starburst of nerve tingling that echoed the stars that briefly flashed before Ryan's eyes.

"I thought so." Eric mumbled, his voice sounding very close to Ryan's ear. "Your back is all in knots."

"What?" Ryan asked stupidly, still dazed from the intense sensation and trying to wrap his head around the idea that Eric was actually now _*giving him a massage.*_ The sexual part of his bodily tension was rapidly gaining ground again on that strange other tension, vividly aware of Eric's slick hands on his skin.

"You always have this little frown...wrinkling your brow," Eric continued, in the same unhurried near-mumble. "Thought it might have something to do with your back."

"My.. back?.....You thought so... huh?" Ryan finally replied, his voice breaking a little mid-word as Eric's questing hands found another knot around his shoulder blade and released it. Eric thought so, thought about Ryan, _*noticed*_ something about Ryan...and actually wanted to help Ryan about it. Ryan was starting to feel like the whole situation was a sunstroke-created wet dream.

It certainly felt pretty perfect in an unpredictable way; what would come next, they'd skinny-dip together? Feed each other grapes? Ryan tried to not let his imagination, or libido for that matter, get away from him. Ryan cleared his throat and tried to focus on the play of the waves along the beach in the distance and not so much on the sensation of Eric's surprisingly-deft fingertips. He must not let wishful thinking get out of hand.

"Ryan," Eric practically breathed the name into Ryan's ear. "You are supposed to be relaxing more, not sitting up straighter than ever. Relax. You are always so tense." Eric's suddenly intimate tone, combined with the unmistakable feel of his arms sliding around Ryan's trim waist, undid all of Ryan's good intentions.

Slowly, almost muscle-by-muscle, Ryan let himself relax into Eric's embrace. They were both still standing, facing the mostly-empty beach of Eric's choice, and Ryan blinked as he noticed that the few people who strolled together hand-in-hand were all men. Ryan tried not to show just how many different thoughts were rattling around in his head, struggling to fit themselves into some sort of coherent whole.

Eventually, Ryan became aware of the relaxed pace of Eric's breathing and found his own breathing slowing down to match. Ryan's heart also slowed from its brief frenzied gallop into a more normal beat against Eric, unaware of Eric's slight smile behind him. When Eric's fingers moved slowly along the underside of Ryan's stomach muscle, Ryan gulped and tried not to tense again.

"Why do you think I brought you here?" Eric asked.

"Pity?" Ryan replied distractedly, as Eric's thumb pad traced along the edge of the indent to Ryan's navel. Eric chuckled.

"Really? What's to pity about you?"

Ryan could wryly think of a number of blunders that were enough to cement his status as pathetic. But if Eric couldn't think of them, why spoil the mood and bring them up? Eric seemed to take his silence for embarrassment and seemed motivated to reassure Ryan:

"Hey, whatever it is, it's no big deal. You take yourself too seriously sometimes."

Ryan felt a smirk coming on and almost replied, "So do you." But again, he didn't want to spoil the mood. Eric continued talking, unaware of Ryan's amused thoughts.

"I invited you here because this is my favourite beach in Miami.."

"And?" Ryan prompted, sensing the unfinished thought.

"And..." Eric paused for a moment with uncharacteristic shyness. "I wanted to know if you like it as much as I do."

Oh _*god.*_ Of all the ways to come out to someone, Ryan thought, this was probably the most apt for a place like Miami. Ryan actually found the whole idea of this elaborate set-up to be cute as all get out. Who knew Eric was oh-so-secretly a queer romantic?

That tension was back in Eric after he'd spoken, as he waited for Ryan's response, and Ryan finally recognized it as nervous anticipation, like someone ready to go out to Club Liquid or maybe Christmas morning. Ryan toyed for a brief moment with all sorts of witty remarks or postcard sentiments. Then he turned in Eric's arms, careful not to break the embrace around him. After a drawn out moment with their gazes locked, Ryan blurted out the first thing to come to mind.

"I think it has a gorgeous view."

And before Eric could smirk at the corny line, Ryan leaned in and kissed him until Eric saw starbursts of his own, brighter than any Miami sunrise.

  
-fin-  
4.8.07


End file.
